A critical issue in the design and construction of buildings is the consideration of fire-safety. For instance, UL, ASTM and building codes have long used fire-resistance ratings to measure the performance of various construction materials for fire containment purposes. Fire-resistance ratings classify the ability of a material or device to confine or isolate fire within walls, ceilings and floor assemblies.
Today, any hole cut into a fire-resistant wall will compromise the fire rating. Therefore, mounting electrical boxes on or in a fire wall have created issues in maintaining the fire rating of fire-resistant walls. In an effort to avoid compromising the fire-resistance rating of walls, contractors generally defaulted to moving electrical boxes from fire-resistant walls to non-fire-resistant walls.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a recessed fire-resistant electrical box for mounting electrical, audio-visual or other digital media devices within a fire-resistant wall while maintaining the one-hour fire rating of the wall.
A further object of the present invention is to position intumescent material in the recessed fire-resistant electric box such that it provides even distribution of the intumesced materials in a specific direction to close any openings and maintain the one-hour fire rating of a fire-resistant wall.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide venting and cable exits that permit access to the electrical box absent conditions that cause the intumescent material to expand.